For the first day in four, the market rallied on some actual good news rather than just talk.

The eureka moment was brought to you by five of the world’s biggest central banks, the Pentaverate of Pain, coming together to extend and amplify dollar liquidity lines. That’s something that was desperately needed by European banks (despite their protestations otherwise) and would certainly be useful in the event Greece defaults (which it probably will).

Europe finally seems to be waking up to the enormity of its problems, and that was certainly enough reason for investors to breathe a sigh of relief on Thursday. The Dow jumped 186.45 to 11433.18, capping a four-day run that has taken it 4% higher.

The S&P 500 jumped 1.7% to 1209.11, and the Nasdaq rose 1.3% to 2606.07. Once again, these indexes have managed to claw back to where they were before the US credit rating downgrade on Aug. 5. The Nasdaq has gained nearly 6% in the past four days.

The S&P’s gain was led by the financials, up 2.6%, energy, up 2% and industrials, up 1.9%.

The Dow transports, meanwhile, were up 1.4% and have put together a 7% rally in just three days. It’s a good sign to see the transports leading the market higher, particularly when they’re followed closely by tech and other economically sensitive sectors.

So what could stop this train? Greece could yet default, but Europe seems to be starting to build the walls to keep it quarantined. EU finance ministers and their American goad, Tim Geithner, are meeting in Poland today, where they will likely discuss the idea of a European TALF (not as funny as the original TALF), which would gear up to help European banks survive a Greek default.

This liquidity scheme does not solve Europe’s underlying problems, of course — but then none of the policy responses going back to 2008 have solved underlying problems, have they? What they have done is tamped down on the systemic risk and ameliorated the symptoms. That has been good enough for financial markets in the past, at least temporarily, and it seems good enough now.

There are also the not-insignificant issues of the US and Chinese economies. Yesterday’s raft of U.S. data, which was largely overlooked, was not encouraging for the US. China, which could be a key player in an ultimate eurozone bailout, has problems of its own. Any downside there would be much more surprising and unsettling to the market.

But stocks have managed to grind higher in a zig-zag way since August 8, making higher lows each time they retreat, and huge tail risks are starting to be tamped down. The ride may not always be smooth, but we may have enough fuel to keep it going for a while.

Morning MarketBeat Daily Factoid: On this day in 1620, The Mayflower left Plymouth, England, carrying a group of English separatists, later called Pilgrims, on a 66-day journey to America. They ended up in what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, though their intended destination was much further south, near the Hudson River. They did not actually set foot on anything called Plymouth Rock.

-Mark Gongloff

MARKET SNAP:

At 6:30 a.m. EDT, S&P 500 futures are down 3.6 points at 1200.6; DJIA futures down 26 points at 11349 and Nasdaq down 5.5 points at 2278.5.

European bourses are up, with the FTSE 100 up 1%; the DAX rose 1.4% and the CAC 40 was 0.5% higher.

In Asia, stocks closed up, with the Nikkei up 2.3% and the Hang Seng rising 1.4%.

Stocks to Watch

Research In Motion posted second-quarter earnings and revenue well below analyst expectations, as the challenging conditions it saw in the first quarter continued into the second. Its stock fell 19% in after-hours trading to $23.87.

Amerigroup said late Thursday that medical costs have continued to rise in recent months, causing the Medicaid insurer to raise its forecast for the ratio of premium revenue spent on patient care. Shares of Amerigroup sank after hours, and were recently down 10% to $39.90.

AAR Corp. (AIR) reported Thursday its fiscal first-quarter earnings climbed 22% as the aircraft-leasing-and-maintenance company continued to see strong demand in its spare-parts business. Shares were up 1.6% at $23 after hours in light trading.

Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN) raised its quarterly dividend 31%, marking the eighth-straight year the chip maker has increased its payout to shareholders. Shares rose 1.1% to $28.01 after hours.

At 9:00 a.m. ET, we get Treasury International Capital data for July. It’s old and unreliable, like Gary Busey, but gets a lot of attention from people anxiously waiting for the day China stops buying Treasurys (hint: not any time soon).

At 9:55 a.m., the University of Michigan gives us preliminary consumer sentiment data for September. Economists think sentiment rose to 56.3 from 55.7 in August. An awful number.

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